Brower Youth Award for Environmental Leadership

According to the Earth Island Institute, “The Brower Youth Award for Environmental Leadership [was established] in 2000 to honor renowned environmental advocate David Brower, who was quoted as saying “I love to see what young people can do, before someone old tells them it’s impossible.” It is with this spirit that we recognize the outstanding leadership efforts of young people who are working for the protection of our shared planet.

Award Amounts: $3,000 (6 awarded); plus a professionally produced short film about their work from an Emmy award winning film crew, and flight and lodging accommodations for a week long trip to the San Francisco Bay Area.

Eligibility: Youth environmental change leaders ages 13 to 22 (as of July 1, 2015) living in North America (including Mexico, Canada, some Caribbean Islands) and US “Territories” are encouraged to apply.

Requirements: Online Application, Photograph, Letter of Support from someone who is familiar with you and your environmental work, and cannot be from a parent or guardian.

Project Impact, Scalability, & Replicability: Is the project’s impact significant? Can your work be used as a model for other communities or campuses?

Charisma, Personal Commitment & Trajectory: What draws you to this work? What would winning the Brower Youth Award mean to you?

Tips for Winning:

Leadership: The Brower Youth Awards are looking to recognize the leader of a group or an effort. While we will consider applicants who are implementing individual efforts, it is our tendency to focus on leaders of groups and efforts.

Research and science fair projects: Many research and science fair projects are individual and/or one–time efforts. As such, they are difficult to compare to the leadership of on-going projects. We will not consider applicants who are implementing research and science fair projects, unless it is part of ongoing environmental efforts involving a larger group.

Earth Day and one-time conferences: We understand the impact and necessity of Earth Day, conferences and one–time gatherings. However, we typically will not consider one–time gatherings for the award, unless the event produced long–term measurable impacts in which you have continued to play a significant leadership role.

If you’d like to support the efforts of the Earth Island Institute, please consider making a donation.